Compete in Launch

Why Compete?

Exposure: Meet investors, startup talent, and potential customers among the thousands of attendees at the Techweek Launch Championship

Press: Launch Championship winners and participants have been written about in Tier 1 publications, including: Forbes, The Economist, Inc, Time, Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Plus, make it to our regional semi-finals and we’ll post a video of your pitch on our website!

The prize:We’ll award our National Champion with a cash investment of $50k+ in exchange for 1.0%. We’ll also award regional winners with $50k+ in cash and prizes. Meanwhile, all regional competitors take home in-kind prizes, including free tickets to the remainder of Techweek events..

Mentorship: All competitors will receive feedback from judges based on their performance at every level of the competition. Furthermore, Launch Champions will receive mentorship from members of that region’s Techweek Executive Advisory Board.

Practice: Practice makes perfect, especially when it comes to pitching your startup. Over half of participating companies agreed that Launch made them more confident at pitching and helped them to improve their pitch.

What involvement is required for competitors?

Before: Apply to participate by making a profile on F6S and applying through our link, above! Upon acceptance, you should ready your display booth and prepare a powerpoint presentation that you can deliver in 6 minutes.

Thursday: Pitch to Techweek attendees, investors and incognito judges at a high top table and receive feedback from your judges in the evening.

Fridays: Upon advancing to the finals, pitch to judges and additional expo attendees in the semi-finals and maybe even to our world-class panelists in the finals! We’ll even record your pitch and make it available online to help tell your story to the world.

After: Each Regional Champion will have a chance to be mentored by members of that region’s Techweek Executive Advisory Board and advance to the National Launch Championship to compete for a $50,000 cash investment and additional prizes!

What kind of companies are eligible to compete?

Tech: Incorporate technology in their businessAge: be less than 3 years oldFunding: Have less than $3M of fundingRevenue: Have less than $15M of revenueTeam: Have fewer than 15 full time employees

What does the schedule look like?

What happened to the previous winners

Winning the Techweek Launch Championship demonstrates to the world that your startup has what it takes to be successful… and the performance of previous winners has demonstrated that to be the case. The majority of our regional champions have gone on to raise additional capital (over $20M in all) after winning Techweek Launch competitions.

How are Champions selected?

Companies are evaluated by a variety of judges who have deep experience in venture capital, angel investing, entrepreneurship, banking, business or academia.

In the first round, judges will anonymously circulate the expo and evaluate their assigned startups across 9 dimensions (listed below). Techweek assigns judges to companies to ensure no conflict of interests exists and only assigned judges are permitted to evaluate any company.

In the semi-finals, companies will be assigned a time to deliver a 6 minute pitch on-stage to a panel of judges and answer 5 minutes of Q&A. The judges will select the top 4 companies based on the same criteria as in the first round and a popular vote will determine the 5th finalist.

In the final round, finalists will make a 6 minute pitch to a new panel of judges and answer 5 minutes of Q&A. The panel will then evaluate the companies and select winner based on which company has the i) highest potential and ii) greatest likelihood of success.

The criteria for evaluating startups in the expo and semi-finals are:

Target market

Problem or need

Solution

Team, board, advisors

Market traction

Competitive advantage

Revenue model

Strategy: Key expenses/ time efforts

Overall presentation / Q&A

What do Champions receive?

If your team has been crowned Champion, you’ve topped many other companies and we want to make sure that you are handsomely rewarded. What this means differs by stage:

National Champion:

$50k cash investment by the Techweek 100 Cities Fund for 1.0% equity

Tier 1 press coverage

Mentorship from Techweek’s Executive Advisory Board to help you take your business to the next level